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Although already wealthy beyond avarice, greed had led Nik at the age of nineteen into getting engaged to a plain, overweight girl who'd had no attraction for him but her value as the proged her pride in the dirt and ultiiving either her or her mother

But then maybe her mother had been born under an unlucky star, Oly at the hardness of the pavement beneath shoe soles worn thin as paper with over­use For the first twenty-one years of her life Irini had been cocooned in a world of wealth and privilege Then she had lish with heavy paternal opposition, Irini had fled to London to be with her boyfriend But the day before their wedding was to take place Olympia's father had crashed his motorbike and died

Shortly afterwards, Irini had

discovered that she was preg­nant Fro back: she was expecting a child and she was unness to take any hout her childhood, Olympia could only recall her mother with a wan, exhausted face, for Irini Manoulis had never been strong And the reality was that all those years of taxing physical labour had wrecked what health she did have and weakened her heart

Once Olyet a job of her own, matters had iret, they had been happy in a tiny flat which had seeo, the firone bankrupt Since then she had only et teround in recent s which Olyone

The council had rehoused theh inner city estate Her ressive youths there that she no longer dared to venture out Olympia had been forced to watch theever more thin and weak, her brave smiles of cheer pathetic to witness It was as if Irini Manoulis had given up on life itself

She was dying, Oly about the distant past now, because the unlovely present was too much for her weakened spirit to handle A rundown apartment they couldn't afford to heat, no telephone, no television, noisy, threatening neighbours and surroundings bereft of all beauty Nothing, nothing what­soever to look forward to with the smallest anticipation

If only Olyo if only! Would she have h was dredged frorandfather could ever had wished on her washed over her now She would have beenbefore her health had failed her ain have enjoyed security and coht, Olympia knew that had she had the benefit of a crystal ball at the age of seventeen she would have married a monster for her mother's sake!

So what if Nik had been snogging the face off a gorgeous Italian model not ten feet from her?

So what if Nik had confided in his second cousin, Katerina, that Olympia was, 'Fat and stupid and sexless, but literally worth her weight in gold!'?

So what if he would have been continually unfaithful throughout theirto live with?

So what if he had said to her face, without scruple, con­science or decency, the ht, 'You're a slapper! And I, Nik Cozakis, refuse to s!'?

Gripped by those painfully degrading recollections, Olyht now Nik was sure to be over in London for the sarandfather was It had featured in the newspapers: aof powerful Greek tycoons with shared interests in British business And, unlike Spyros Manoulis, Nik had a massive office headquarters in the City of London, where he very likely was this very minute

What did she have to lose? He was still single And Spyros Manoulis never joked about money Spyros would happily pay millions and millions of pounds to marry her off to Nik Cozakis Personalities didn't co of two enormous business empires And with that size of a dowry still available, even a plain Jane slapper ought to have the gumption to put a late offer on the table! Was she crazy! No, she owed a huge debt to herher into the world and raise her to adulthood What had she ever given back?

Olympia squinted at her reflection in the shopA dark-haired worey skirt and jacket shabby with age Even on a restricted diet she was never going to be thin Her shape was lush—horri­bly, een­erous curves froht Well, she orth her weight in gold, she re Nik Cozakis reputedly excelled at, it was ruthlessly exploiting any proposition likely to enrich his already overflowing coffers

Nik was planning a major deal

All calls were on hold, with only the direst eency excuse for an interruption of any kind So when even the softest of knocks sounded hesitantly on the door of his office his dark head ca in exasperated enquiry His British PA, Gerry, hurried to the door, where a whispered exchange took place

Gerry moved back to his powerful e to see you urgently, sir'

'No interruptions, particularly not of the female variety,' Nik cut in with harsh impatience

'She says she's Spyros Manoulis's granddaughter, Olympia But the receptionist isn't convinced of her identity I gather the woman doesn't look like someone you would be acquainted with, sir'

Olyible stillness, Nik Cozakis frowned in silent disbelief Olympia Manoulis Rooted deep in his subconscious lurked a tender spot still raith a rage that had yet to dim How dared that whore enter his office block and have the effrontery to ask to see hi his staff so much that everybody jumped, and one unfortunate dropped several files

Striding over to the tall tinted s like a leopard on the prowl for fresh ive her Spyros was a man of his word And Nik still pitied the older hter's behaviour had been painful to wit­ness His only son had drowned in a yacht race and his daughter had become an' unwed mother Bad blood in that fa that his head­strong son had had a narrow escape

Yet still Nik si cauldron when he recalled the hu publicly confronted with the fact that his fiancée, his doe-eyed supposedly virginal bride-to-be, had gone out to his car with a drunken friend and had sex with hi about that degrading, utterly inexcusable episode still had the power to ret that he had never had the opportunity to punish Olympia Manoulis as she had so definitely deserved

The atmosphere was so explosive that the silence was ab­solute His staff exchanged uncertain glances Gerry Marsden waited, and then slowly breathed in 'Sir?'

Nik wheeled back 'Let her wait'

His PA concealed his surprise with difficulty 'At what time will I tell your secretary that you will see her?'

'No tiht the way to Hades, Nik threw back his proud dark head 'Let her wait'

As the hours crept past into the lunch hour, and then on into the late afternoon, Olympia was conscious that quite a few people seeh the ilance in her di­rection

She held her head high, neck aching from that determined show of indifference She had her foot in the door, she told herself bracingly Nik hadn't had her escorted off the prem­ises Nik had not flatly refused to see her And if he was very, very busy, that was only what she had expected, and she could not hope for any favours Curiosity would even­tually penetrate that arrogant, macho and bone-deep stubborn skull of his Even Nik Cozakis had to be that human

Despair was the mother of invention, she conceded Nik Cozakis was literally her last hope And why should her fierce pride hurt? No false pride had held herother people's floors so that she could feed and clothe her daughter

Just before five o'clock, the receptionist rose fro, Miss Manoulis' Olyhtened her stiff shoulders and stood up She stepped into the lift and let it carry h

er back down to the ground floor She would be back toedly She would not be embarrassed into retreat by such tactics But, even so, she was as badly shaken as if she had run into a hard brick wall

As she stood on the bus that would eventually bring her within walking distance of ho Nik was no longer the teenager she had once been so pathetically infatuated with: impatient and hot-tempered, with not a lot in the way of self-control The eldest son of two adoring parents, he had been the natural leader in his sophisticated social set of bored but gilded youth And so beautiful, so heartachingly, savagely beautiful that it must have seemed like a crime to his unlovely friends that he should be matched with an unattractive, plump and charm­less bride-to-be

But now Nik was a fully grown adult male A Greek randfather, he saw no need to justify his own behaviour There had been no quiet announcement that he was unavailable He had let her wait and cherish hope That had been cruel, but she should have been better prepared for that tack

The scent of cooking greeted Olympia's return to the flat she shared with her mother She hurried into the tiny kitchen and watched her ather her spare frareet her Her heart turned over sickly at the grey pallor of the older woman's worn face

‘I thought we agreed that / do all the cooking, Mum'

'You've been out looking for a job all day It's the least that I can do,' Irini Manoulis protested

Later, as Olyuilt for the evasions she had utilised with her mother But how could she have told the older wo all day? Irini would have been upset by the knowledge that her daughter had secretly got in touch with her grandfather, but unsurprised by the outcome However, an admission that Olympia had tried to see Nik Cozakis would have left her mother bereft of breath and a frank ex­planation of why her daughter had sought that nified parent